anti-Airbnb regulations suspended in administrative court

The administrative court of Pau on Friday suspended a regulation of the Basque Country urban community intended to curb the expansion of furnished tourist accommodation, of which the Airbnb platform is the symbol, in a territory with a tight real estate market.

The administrative court, seized at the beginning of May of a referral-suspension formed by a collective of more than 50 applicants, owners and concierge companies, considered in its order that there was a serious doubt on the legality of this deliberation, adopted in March and in force since Wednesday.

He considers that the compensation measure, which obliges owners to produce, in the same city and with an equivalent surface area, a property on the rental market in the year to compensate for a dwelling transformed into tourist accommodation, is likely to disregard the principle of proportionality頻.

In the 24 Basque municipalities classified in extended areas, the scarcity or even the non-existence of premises eligible for compensation, do not allow the obligation imposed to be satisfied, write the judges of the referrals.

The elements produced by the Basque Country Agglomeration do not establish that the alleged shortage would be of such magnitude that it would prevent many people from being able to find accommodation, the judges also considered.

It is a huge relief for them because they had withdrawn their ads from the platforms since Wednesday and there was a risk of economic layoffs, reacted Me Victor Steinberg, lawyer for the applicant collective.

More than 16,000 tourist accommodations are listed in the 24 municipalities concerned, an increase of 130% between 2016 and 2020 according to the Agence d’urbanisme Atlantique et Pyrnes (Audap).

In November, a demonstration for the right to housing brought together between 6,500 and 8,000 people in the streets of Bayonne.

After this summary-suspension, an emergency plea based on the form of the deliberation, a hearing on the merits, on the very content of the measure and on its legality, will take place in the coming months.

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